Trip tales

As Goa's beaches become a major market for narcotics dealers, the tourist hotspot reels in the face of a drug-laced foreign invasion. Not far from where Scarlett Keeling's violated body was found and the dismembered corpse of Russian teenager Elena Sukhanova was discovered stands the shack Curlie

As Goa's beaches become a major market for narcotics dealers, the tourist hotspot reels in the face of a drug-laced foreign invasion. Not far from where Scarlett Keeling's violated body was found and the dismembered corpse of Russian teenager Elena Sukhanova was discovered stands the shack Curlies. Hippies with dreadlocks and backpackers lounge about on plastic chairs. The atmosphere is thick with hash.

A busy saturday night at the Curlies beach shack

The only interruption in the steady thump of trance music pulsing through the speakers happens when a bare-chested, heavily tattooed foreigner screams in a drug-induced haze. His mahogany face is frozen like a waxwork, or a facelift gone wrong.

Drug peddler Dinesh, 40, sits in a corner of the restaurant, situated at the southern end of the Anjuna beach. He blows smoke rings in the air while reeling out his price list: a gram of cocaine at Rs 2,800; 10 gm of ganja for Rs 1,000; and Rs 600 for an Ecstasy tablet. The pusher who doubles as a part-time electrician claims the police don't touch him because he pays them. "They are greedy and sometimes even strip-search me for money," he says. Dinesh has the glazed look of a hardcore heroin addict - his use of hypodermic syringes has earned him the nickname 'doctor'.

His arms are pincushions of needle jabs. Dinesh doesn't use a cellphone to avoid being tracked and doesn't have a last name. He epitomises the drug trade in Goa. He is both consumer and retailer. A sale makes him enough money for a Rs 1,000 daily fix. Drugs are often traded for sexual favours. "In Goa, it's lines and women," he says.

Tony (name changed), a well-connected African drug dealer, has been in the business in Goa for over a decade. He has bribed police officers, snorted cocaine with politicians - he says two are ministers in the Goa Government- and shared the proceeds with them. Giving credence to Atala's claims that he was getting drugs from the policemen, Tony says that it happens all the time. "When a large consignment of drugs is expected, we let the customs or the narcotics (of Anti-Narcotics Cell) guys confiscate 100 kg and allow the remaining 400-500 kg to enter Goa," he says. "The officials are happy getting their rewards and we are happy since we get the bulk of our stuff in."

On the missing drugs, Tony says that "friendly cops released it to us bit by bit, in batches - the stuff that was supposed to have been eaten by the white ants". According to him, 70 per cent of the drugs inflow into Goa was still by the sea route. The remaining is brought in by the chartered flights-crew, passengers and couriers. Charters do not face stringent security checks. "You people treat guests as Gods, so the Goa police and customers do not believe in subjecting them to stringent checks," he smiles.

This article will appear in the India Today magazine dated November 8, 2010. Subscribe to the print copy.

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